Sandblasting Mirrors
Many websites and forums tell you how to decorate glass by sandblasting. We do not sell sandblasting equipment.
Instead we show you a few of the ways that our mirroring chemicals work with sandblasted glass.
These samples were all done with silver but you can use gold, copper and galena as well. Gold and silver look dull and muddy on sandblasted glass but Copper looks dark red and galena looks like wrought iron.
In this example, Sarah etched the design deep into the beveled side of a 3/16" thick commercial bevel. The front of the mirror is flat. The etching is deep enough that you can see parts of the design reflected multiple times in the mirrored, beveled sides if you look at it from certain angles.
This glass was lightly sandblasted on the back with a Paasche Eraser air gun before it was silvered.
If you sandblast a design on the front of the mirror, you will see a double image because you can see the back of the design reflected by the mirror as well as the front of the design.
Whether a sandblasted design looks dark or light depends on the angle of the light and where you are standing in relation to the mirror.
If you want the design to look dark in any light, you need to mirror it with Galena.
Deep sandblasting adds depth to any image.
When you silver large areas of sandblasted glass, the glass looks dull and muddy. You get a very dramatic effect by contrasting the dull and reflective surfaces.
Galena mirroring chemicals look like wrought iron when applied to sandblasted glass.
To make this mirror
- Do not remove the mask after sandblasting.
- Wash the masked glass to remove all blasting dust.
- Galena mirror the open areas. Don't worry if the Galena chemicals flow over the mask.
- Dry and paint the mirrored areas with mirror backing paint.
- Allow the paint to dry and then remove the mask,
- Clean and silver the exposed glass. Don't worry if the silver chemicals flow over the paint.
- Dry the silver and paint the entire piece with another layer of mirror backing paint.
